Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10 in FIAE cover mainly grading in today’s classrooms. We, as teachers must keep in mind that we are doing this in a newly differentiated classroom. As a whole I think the chapters want us as teachers to consider the five W’s. Who are we grading, what are we grading, why are we grading, when do we grade, and where do we grade? As teachers, if we can answer these five things, then we are doing quite well. We can succeed in answering these questions by collaborating with our colleagues. To be effective in our differentiation as teachers it is important to grade all our students fairly, as well as individually. The author highly suggests that as teachers, we are constantly thinking about assessment. As teachers our job is to assess, all the time, and in many different ways. There is a difference between assessment and grading (Assessment vs. Grading)We do this to better prepare our students to show an enduring understanding. Several grading structures are discussed in these chapters; some alike, some unalike but all grading. As teachers we will all have our own ways of grading, and our own policies. One common policy in this chapter was the late work policy. One thing I found effective was that as teachers “we can always do better” As a whole a teachers grading scale should be Fair, Equal, and Informative/consistent.
Synthesis
Chapter 7 of FIAE kicked off a discussion on the meaning behind the grade. A lot of block one recognized the impact grades (especially failing grades) have on student performance. In addition, the block focused on the idea that grades should show mastery of a subject and any attempts that do not show master should also not be graded. Ashley Godbout highlights two ways schools have avoided failing students and instead focused on mastery of the subject: “Some school districts follow an A, B, C, I scale where I represents incomplete and there is “failing” grade. Another school includes A, B and “you’re not done”. These are two great examples of fostering that idea that grades show mastery.”
For chapter 8 of FIAE, most of block one focused on the positive side of grading. For the most part the block recognized the need for teachers to use grading as a way of giving feedback to the students on the work that they have done. According to block one, students should get more than just a letter grade, the response should include positive things they have done and constructive response on how to do better. Cole summarizes best the dark side to the grading system used in schools today: “And we have a system that, annually, weeds out more students, which fails more students, which discourages more students from learning, than ever before.” As teachers we need to use grading as a tool to keep students in school and motivated rather than a method of getting rid of poor students.
Chapter 9 of FIAE brought out a little disagreement in the classroom. Most of block one agrees that grading homework is not something that should be done. Homework is practice and students should not be subject to summative assessment. Russell puts it best: “Every other assignment (not tests/projects/etc.) is about working with the student to aid their learning, not to judge them on their retention of material.” However, some practicum students voiced concern that if 0s or incompletes are not acceptable, there should be some method for keeping students responsible for completing their homework.
With chapter 10 focusing around redoing or making-up missed or failing assignments, most of block one was in agreement. Students should be given the opportunity to in some method redeem poor classwork. While each member of block one came up with a variation, there was consensus on the core meaning. Tyler Michaud stated a key point concerning the redoing of grades: “Every teacher has a different policy for their classroom and grades and that is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that every teacher needs to make sure that their own practice is clear to the students and themselves; as long as their policy is consistent and fair it should yield positive results.” Whether or not a teacher allows for work to be redone, it is important that the students know ahead of time the policy or method that the teacher will grade.
Cheyenne
Grades, grades, grades, oh, and more GRADES! Who could possibly go on for four entire chapters about grades, not me, because I find them utterly insignificant? They show little to nothing about a student’s true understanding and skill. Firstly I would like to point out the fact that the requirements of what “proving mastery” consists of are different depending on where you are located around the world. I would also like to question the fact that receiving an A would constitute you as “above average.” If you receive a C then you are “just average.” Oh, and don’t let me forget about you bottom-of-the-barrel folks, if you receive a D or even lower, you are what we would all consider “below average,” or in the high school world, DUMB. What wonderful labels we have to put on the youth. You know, at a certain point, after receiving a number of “below average” scores, kids just give up. They wouldn’t give up though, if teachers didn’t give up on them first.
We live in a society where receiving the highest grade is all that matters. It doesn’t matter how or why you got that A, but you did, and that makes you King of the Essays, congratulations. So you’re good at writing? How about you tell me how to build a campfire; better yet, build one. I bet you can’t. Luckily for you, you will continue to get you “above average” scores because you insist on taking English courses where you get to write and do the only thing you are truly good at. The kid who is getting D’s, on the other hand, is sitting through torture because he has no idea where to even begin when it comes to defining theme, especially when he is trying to do so while reading Hamlet.
Grades don’t express mastery. They could, but, for the most part, they do not. I think it is safe to say that at least three-fourths of the teachers in the United States think one-sidedly. This means, you must write a paper to express what you have learned, if the writing is crap, then you obviously didn’t learn anything. Wrong! If the writing is crap the student just isn’t a strong writer, and someone didn’t do their job for the entire semester.
As I digress, Wormeli talk about when a grade should be given. Homework is something that should not be graded. I agree, but I also think that nothing should be graded. So I guess I am somewhat biased to this topic. I just see grades as a way to classify and label students. Grades are a means of bullying. A student gets labeled as “unteachable” when the teacher is the one that should have the label. The label of being uninteresting, of being uninspiring, of being unimaginative.
Tyler Michaud
Chapters seven through ten of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, by Rick Wormeli, focused on the importance and significance of grading. Firstly, what do grades mean? The point of them is to assess the students' level of mastery, but what does a “C” mean, versus a “C+”? Yes, a “C” is technically average, so then a “C+” would be slightly above average, but that it is not good enough to be a “B-”, right? Well, now that we have figured that out, what is “average”? Unfortunately, this could go on forever. Grades are extremely subjective, there is no common grading system, which results in grades becoming a way for students to reflect upon their own intelligence, when grades should be viewed as level of understanding achieved so far. What should be graded? Teachers need to know what they are grading and why. For example, is it really necessary to grade an introductory exercise? If so, why? Personally, I think that anything that is not an assessment or an equivalent (projects, etc.) should not be strictly graded, for its purpose was not assessing, but practicing. Grading is not meant to demoralize the students- though it often becomes this- but to check their level of mastery. If needed, the teacher should alter classroom methods to improve upon the results. All students work and achieve at a different pace and nobody should be punished for their methods; however, if the teachers establishes a clear deadline for a lesson, it is up to the student, with the guide of the teacher, to manage time accordingly so that come the due date they are where they should be in terms of the lesson. Do students really deserve redos? Every teacher has their belief on whether students should be allowed to do their work over: some teachers think that do-overs are illogical as it enforces student laziness if they know they can fix it later; however, my personal belief is that redos can be a great tool to improve upon mastery. If a student is willing to put the work into improving their score and can explain why their new submission is improved, than I think it can be useful. Most students, if they know that they will be expected to accomplish additonal work, will not take the redo, thus it stops those students that may think, “I'll just submit this now and then I'll use the “redo” time as an extension, so that I don't have to do it now.” Grading is subjective, but that does not mean it is pointless. When used correctly, grading can help the teacher and students understand what is or is not working. As the teacher, using grades as a way to reflect upon the struggles of the class and of the students and using that awareness to clarify is essential. Every teacher has a different policy for their classroom and grades and that is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that every teacher needs to make sure that their own practice is clear to the students and themselves; as long as their policy is consistent and fair it should yield positive results.
Ashley Godbout
These four chapters were focused on grading and areas where it’s important in the classroom and where it’s not. Grades should define a student’s mastery in the classroom, nothing more or less. A really great lesson this book introduced is lessening the number of grades on the scale. Anything less than C work should be considered temporary. Some school districts follow an A, B, C, I scale where I represents incomplete and there is “failing” grade. Another school includes A, B and “you’re not done”. These are two great examples of fostering that idea that grades show mastery. How can you give credit as a teacher for something that a student has clearly not mastered? It also allows students to keep moving towards mastery and they see themselves as a work in progress rather than focusing on the failure aspect. Grading shouldn’t happen for the sack of motivating students, punishing them, or sorting them. Grading is suppose to give feedback to the students and families, document their progress and aid in making instructional decisions; accurately represent what students know and are able to do. The idea of grading student participation is confusing and something teachers struggle with. It isn’t always easy to determine either because all students are different. Students may be afraid to speak up during class also. With all this said there is certain approaches teachers should avoid when differentiating grading. If the teacher is going to allow the students multiple attempts at something to show mastery then the student shouldn’t be punished for this.
The book says to avoid grading homework. I agree with this statement, however, I think students need to receive credit for doing the assignment. Homework shouldn’t receive a grade but it should have feedback so the student can learn and grow for the experience as they work towards mastery. Avoiding group grades is super important. It doesn’t show individual learning and achievement so how can we give everyone in the group the same grade. It’s too inaccurate. Another idea to avoid is recording zeros for work not completed. This gives an inaccurate grade because it skews the grade point average to one that is completely distorted. Instead teachers should mark it as an “I” as mentioned above.
The last introduction we got in these chapters was one that highlighted redoing work for full credit. The first important objective is that redone work is done by teacher discretion. If they feel like a student took 3 days to complete a 4-week project or blew off a test so that they could just preview it then retake it later, the teacher can withdraw the offer to redo it for full credit and have a conversation with the student. The most important note to highlight is that when offering a student to redo their work, the teacher should help them create a calendar to complete the work. This will be like a study plan so they can master the material. Wormelli suggests asking the student “What will you need to do on Thursday so you can turn this is on Friday?” After, ask them, “What will you need to do Wednesday to complete Thursdays application?” Students need this guidance so they can stay up-to-date on their current work while getting their redo work complete.
Christopher Vogel
Over several chapters now the issue of how ineffective (yet required) grades are in the classroom. However, chapter 7 discussed grades in a unique way that I have not thought about before. How does a single grade letter tell a parent, student or teacher how well a student understands a wide variety of topics in one particular class? Often times I have received a paper back from a professor and all the feedback is a simple letter B. I have absolutely no idea what I did wrong. The grade does not describe to me all the flaws of the paper or tell me what I did correctly. Chapter 7 goes on to explain how grades are opinionated. Teachers often grade very differently from each other and can often be influenced by the student writing it. As a teacher we need to understand a student’s background when working on it. The chapter says to adjust grades based on student backgrounds while maintaining the integrity of the grade.
Chapter 8 discusses the reasons for why we grade. The chapter immediately divides grading into two groups. We grade because we want to document student and teacher progress, provide feedback, and inform instructional decisions. The other side of grading is to motivate, punish and sort students. The book favors the first three because it is the positive aspects of grading. As a future teacher I hope to work towards these goals to provide meaning to my grades rather than one more way of manhandling students to do their work.
Chapter 9 discusses the appropriate time to grade students. The critical point made by the chapter is that not all students are ready for grading or assessing what they know at the same time. This makes timing of tests and what we expect on tests critical. One example used in the reading is retaking a test but without the ability to get a 100. This is done so students who did master the material “on time” do not lose out. However, this can be punishing to students who had not been able to master the material at the appointed time despite working hard to do so. Homework is also important. Trying to teach through homework will only hurt students in the long run and may cause them to learn the material incorrectly.
Chapter 10 discussed policies for retaking tests or assignments and how to grade them. I thought this chapter was interesting because of all the good and bad policies mentioned I have had at least once. I particularly like the reason for not averaging retaking of tests with the original test. As a future teacher I do not yet know what I will have for a test retake policy. However, I will always pick the larger of two grades for a student’s test redo. Another policy I will adapt is not allowing redoing of work close to grade closing. The chapter reasons that it is important for teachers to be focused on getting the big grades in and not getting distracted by student requests. I see it as a way to get students prepared for the closing weeks early so they can focus on other issues like the final test or other classes where they are struggling.
Russell Warren
Rick Wormeli has set-up the book in a way that leads up to a huge contention point among many educators across disciplines: grading. He dissected and detailed the ways many teachers attack assessment, and provided options and lessons to allow all students to do well on tests and assignments. However, this is all useless if our grading methods are faulty and illogical. Chapters seven and eight detail the why? and what? of grades and grading students. He begins the section explaining how grades are completely subjective, and I totally agree. Throughout middle and high school I had very different methods between teachers on how they graded my assignments. Some would provide detailed feedback on how I could do better, but others would simply write a grade with no notes or suggestions. I've also experienced, almost exclusively in college, teachers who are very rewarding and kind during class and on formative assessments, but get hardcore when it comes to summative assessments, and I'm left shocked and confused. Grades are necessary in the classroom, but they shouldn't be used as an end-all, be-all. They are weighted symbols than can positively or negatively effect the students' opinion on the class and teacher. It's so important to provide explanation for your grading and give the opportunity for student to meet with you to discuss their success in the class. For all you know, they 'D' student - whatever that means - could be extremely proud and confident in their work. Grades are to scale and follow progress and assess students. For them to be effective, teachers must use written or oral response to communicate with the student.
Chapters nine and ten have Wormeli discussing the actual exercise of taking tests. Obviously, it's never always alright to assign a test, and it's especially not right to grade everything given to the students. I agree with Wormeli that graded assignments should be saved for the big, end-of-unit, formative assessments, like the performance task objective - this is what Wormeli urges for in Chapter ten. Every other assignment is about working with the student to aid their learning, not to judge them on their retention of material. I think it's really important that the students understand that the point of them being in the class is to learn and grow, not to do well on a test every week. Too many students fall into a rut of repetition and quick retention that gets them through school, but with little concrete knowledge. The other side of this, however, is the problem with how grade-oriented the current educational climate is. How can we pass students if we don't have grades? Is it enough to pass them for just finishing the work? I think the answer for these both is a big no. A system is what needs to be created, one where timeliness and correctness is graded alongside creativity and comprehension. I need to know they're being assessed thoroughly, but they should know that their knowledge is key.
Michael Diffin
Chapter seven in fair isn't always equal talks primarily about the arbitrary grading system that exists in schools today. What separates an A from a B or and A from D for that matter. It is all relative to the teacher but we are expected to assign the students a letter or number based on how well they answered the questions on each form of assessment. But are we assessing them, or them against all the other students? I think that assigning them one of these relative grades that have been assigned to the grading system is foul and unnecessary in order to prove the fact that they are learning. We need to be assessing the fact that they are improving their own knowledge, prove that each student is genuinely learning.
Chapter eight in fair isn't always equal teaches us the reason that we grade and the importance of including effort, attendance, and behavior in the thought process of grading. There are several things that can be used positively in the grading process. These consist of, “to document student and teacher progress, to provide feedback to the student and family, and the teacher, to inform instructional decisions.” These are some positive reasons to grade, the chapter also includes negative reasons to grade, “to motivate students, to punish students, to sort students.” The chapter goes into grading effort and behavior. It outlines how to we objectively measure effort? It is hard to do so because there is no standard for it.
Chapter nine outlines ten processes to avoid when grading because they exclude students that shouldn’t be excluded. These appear as very important processes to avoid when grading as they often appear arbitrary with lack of substance. Some of the ones covered in the last chapter include non-academic parts of the students education. You should also avoid penalizing the students for wanting to retry their work, allow them to redo it but allow it for full credit. Homework should also not be graded because it is just an attempt at the work and therefore only practice. I also like avoiding group grades as they do not accurately reflect all members, some students always end up doing more than others or that the ideas of the students may be different, reflecting different learning results. Finally I like the idea of not recording zeros for work that has not been done because when they see this they respond negatively and end up doing even less.
Chapter ten in fair isn't always equal outlines redoing work for full credit. This chapter has some great main points for redoing work. The first is doing the work at the teachers discretion, redoing work should not be done just to get a better grade, it is for the better understanding of the student. I will decide when and what they have to do to get full credit. This ties into one of the other ones that states that we should reserve the right to change the format of the work so that the whole thing is not redone arbitrarily. They should have to do the work that will best help them understand the work to the level that they need to.
Matt Potter
Chapter seven of FIAE focuses on grading, and its affect on student’s performance. Teachers must grade work and return in in a timely fashion. This chapter breaks this down even further. How do we grade work, and what is a grade? This chapter describes grading as the marking of a students performance. Another thing I found interesting in which I interpreted from this chapter was that, it is important to differentiate in the ways we grade. Students who are expected to preform lowly, but are putting forth great effort deserve credit right? This chapter says that a student in this situation should in fact not receive a low grade, and I agree. Grades are a great way to kill a student’s ego. So why give a student that is working his tail off a failing grade? They simply should receive a passing grade based on his/her attempt. I as a teacher will put this observation into great use. I want to be a successful teacher, and I will never wish failure on any of my students.
Chapter eight, talks about grading positively. This pertains to student’s effort, and even behavior. The book suggests that we as teacher take the time to documents, thank, and congratulate our students for being in class, on time, prepared, and attempting all the assignments they are given. In my mind these things should matter based on success, and grade. Though we don’t link those words together. It about the effort a student puts in, and how he or she behaves in class.
Chapter nine speaks of multiple more things not to do as a teacher, while grading. To sum these multiple strategies up, we as teachers should never disadvantage our students in any way. The book gives a few great examples of this, they include, not giving extra credit, not putting in zeros into our grade book for late work, and to never grade homework for use of a formative assessment. As a teacher I will avoid these things. Zeros, to me, are a “cop out” as a teacher, the easy way out. I feel as if zeros, and graded formative assessments are great ways to disadvantage students, which is exactly why I will never use these teaching styles. I will continuously move forward in my teaching styles and only practice beneficial methods that will affect my students.
Chapter ten discusses late work. It talks about how we can work with student and give them the opportunity to complete late work without receiving a zero. Teachers put both themselves and their students down when they give a student a zero for a late assignment. We must give guidelines for our students, but be flexible all at the same time. Students who don’t turn in an assignment when it is due should be talked to one on one before, maybe during, or after class to discuss when the assignment will be completed. By taking this approach we make our students feel accountable for their work. More often than not, they will not want to disappoint you again in the future!
All these chapters discuss forms of assessment and grading. Also technique, and method pertain to this. They all connect when looking at students needs, and attempting to help them succeed in the classroom. Our goal is to help them do better, and not push them away.
Meghan Hughes
These four chapters focus on grading and the effects it has on students, teachers, and the classroom overall. Chapter seven focuses on the effects of grading on student performance. One thing I liked about this chapter is the fact that it discussed the importance of differentiating grading between students. It is important to give credit where credit is due. Just because a student hasn't gained the highest level of mastery, but they do the work hard and try to the best of their ability, should they not receive credit for that work? Of course they should. Although it is not always practical, students should receive credit for their work when it is evident that they have done the work and have tried to the best of their ability. There are many relevant issues when dealing with grading based on credit. We do not want to discourage a student who tries really hard but hasn't received mastery, and we don't want to encourage a poor work ethic even if the student has a natural mastery of the subject.
Chapter eight focused on positive grading. It is important to take into account all aspects that may go into how students complete their work. It is important to take into account work ethic, behavior, and the importance of teacher feedback. It is important to find a steady balance between grading based on a student's efforts and grading based on a student's mastery. It is important to find a balance because we do not want students to think they do not have to gain mastery of the subject as long as it appears they have done the work and put in the effort on paper. The book gave several examples of ways to not disadvantage students; not giving extra credit, not putting zeros in the grade book for late work, and not using homework as a summative assessment for the class.
Chapter nine focused on things to avoid when grading student work. It is important that we NEVER disadvantage students in any way. We should not make the process more complicated for them than it has to be to prove that they either have full mastery, or that they are able to put in their best effort to come up with an answer.
Chapter ten also discussed late work. One thing I do not agree with as an example of this, is giving zeros for late or missing work. It is important for students to be held accountable for their assigned work. On the other hand, it is important to allow students the proper amount of time needed to complete an assignment so they are not being disadvantaged by the teacher. In my mentor classroom at the high school, I have seen a prime example of how late or missing work can greatly influence an entire classroom. Because there is no late work policy in place, students are able to pass in their assignments whenever they feel like it without being penalized. In short, almost every student comes into class every day without having any homework done. This means that nothing gets accomplished in class, which is not helpful to anyone. While I understand it is important to take into account the other issues that students might be dealing with, it is also important to teach students responsibility and accountability in the classroom in every aspect. There are many ways to avoid this issue. Making sure the student know to talk to you ahead of time as opposed to not mentioning a reason whey their work is late, will still hold the student accountable, and will give the teacher more control to talk with the student and create a new date and time for the assignment. It is important that all students learn in the classroom, and in order for them to do this, it is important that the teacher be consistent and always hold the students accountable for their work in and out of the classroom.
Cole Phillips
Throughout chapters seven, eight, nine, and ten of Rick Wormeli’s Fair Isn’t Always Equal, we find Wormeli extensively detailing the grading process. He notes its subjectivity, its differences from district to district, offers examples of what grading is, and what grading should be. Wormeli suggests there are districts where anything below a C is either failing or incomplete, and must be redone. He suggests there are districts which do not even use Cs. Wormeli even posits that there are districts which use alternative grading scales which have abandoned numerical grading altogether.
Wormeli details mastery, time and time again, asserting that grades, in any form, should be an ultimate representation of such things. But are contemporary grades or grading systems representative of this idealistic indicator? We have a system which is logically based, we have a system that has proven timeless, and a system which encourages work-well-done and discourages the contrary. And we have a system that, annually, weeds out more students, which fails more students, which discourages more students from learning, than ever before. If ever there has been something in an educational system which needs careful attention, then it is the scale with which we assess student comprehension. This is the base on which grade level ascension functions, on which preparedness for life after school functions, and on which student self-discovery is enabled. In short, grades suck, and the grading system sucks.
You can differentiate grades with pluses and minuses, detailed explanations, or whatever seems appropriate, but a student on the honor roll wears ribbons on graduation day, and a student who's seen nothing but Fs is pulling a shift at Cumberland Farms that day. Failure, in itself, is a distorted, contrived label that needs to be ousted altogether. But so, then, do numerical and alphabetical grades, in my opinion. A grade is for an egg; a level of understanding is for a student. We must go into this field thinking we want to be teachers in large part because we know that there is, at least, something that we want to change. We must fuel the desire to go into this field with thirst for enabling student success and with never, ever, wanting to let students to fall by the wayside because of neglect and inadvertent discouragement. We can't let a student fail because he or she wasn’t given the time of day, and the National Honor Society held meetings in his or her homeroom every week.
If students are taking the time to be in class, then take the time to give them a detailed, written explanation of what their perceived comprehensions of the content are. Grades should be pass/fail, period. Though, perhaps, alternately titled. Grades exist for the sake of college admission and future workforce applications. Both of these should be merit based, not numerically based. Higher education, lower education, the workforce – doesn’t matter. We are all working with people, not robots, not numbers. Write a college an essay with eloquent conviction, and you should be in. Get a job interview and blow them away before they’ve had the chance to glance at GPA, and you should be in. Sit down with a student and tell them where they’re going in the right direction, or why it seems to be the contrary, and you enable them to feel like they can do anything.
Tyler Brown
Wormeli covers many of the common errors teachers tend to make regarding assessment in Chapters 7-10 of FIAE. First, he discusses the nature of grading and both sides of the argument about whether or not grading is really an effective and healthy way of reinforcing and interpreting students’ mastery. Personally, I support a system free of arbitrary letters and numbers that don’t really detail individual growth and achievement. On the other hand, I can instantly recognize what an uproar an announcement like that would make when told to a group of students, teachers, and administrators who have been socialized by the grading system, in most cases, for the majority of their lives. In my Practicum experience, I have noticed that when leading in-class activities, the question of “are we being graded on this?” is asked all too often.
There seems to be no safe response. I tried explaining to one class that it is not being graded, but participation will help them learn the material that they will eventually be tested on. One student, who I will call J, openly responded with “sweet well I’ll just wait for the study guide Mr. Main gives us before the test because I really don’t feel like doing anything today”. Looking around the room, a few smirks, stifled laughs, and nods of the head allowed me to understand that some of the students agreed with this notion. So given that information I posed the question “so what you are saying J, is that grading you on this activity somehow is the only thing that would get you to participate?” to which he replied with something along the lines of: “yeah, because we are here to take classes, earn grades, and get the hell out of here as fast as possible. That’s it”. I wasn’t really sure how to respond, so I said, “Okay J, I’ll let you watch the rest of us do the activity, and if you decide by the end of the class that it’s boring just sitting at your desk watching, let me know and we will work you into the activity.” 20 minutes later, the class had been separated into two teams and we were in the midst of playing “trashketball” while covering the content in Unit 17.1. After all of the students had a chance to take a shot, I stopped and said “Blue team, you are short one player on your roster, is it alright if J joins your team?” They agreed that would be okay, and without having to put J on the spot, he was socially reinforced to take a shot, which he made, and answer a 3-point question, which he knew the answer to. I was thankful that it ended that way, because a variety of other endings to that story could have occurred. J could have been more defiant and still refused to participate. He might have gotten angry that I didn’t ask him directly whether or not he wanted to join in. Another student in the class could have chided him by saying "I thought you were too cool to participate", or any number of alternate negative endings could have escalated the issue, all because I said "no, this will not be graded".
To me, grading and assessment is perhaps the most mind-boggling aspect of education. The only real universal truth about grading seems to be that: what to grade, when to grade, and how to grade, along with the hundreds of unique considerations that branch off of those questions, must all be decided with respect to the content, the unique personality of the class, and the unique personality of each individual student within it.
Devin Boilard
FIAE Chapters: 7,8,9, &10
I have been waiting for the topic of grades to arise for a while now, as author Rick Wormeli points out in Fair Isn’t Always Equal, it is the “elephant in the room,” and today I finally get the chance to talk about it. The definition of a grade is almost completely indefinable, Chapter 7: The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions itself never reaching its own conclusion. Both how the grade is reached and what it exemplifies changes from moment to moment. A teacher’s assessment of class papers can produce a range of samples carrying the marking of “A”, contributing to this are factors such as a student’s background, location of paper in the stack, and teacher’s mood. Overall definitions of grades range too, a specific area of frustration I find within the education community is the disparity in what grade marks complete mastery. While for most teachers an “A” represents meeting outlined goals, for others it is reserved for those who excel. This practice runs into the flaw that students who do reach the level of full mastery can be marked with a “B”; much is lost in translation. As teachers we must accept the fact that grades by nature are subjective and therefore will never be completely accurate in their assessment. Unless we have the opportunity to work at such institutions that have done away with grades, we must be conscious of this fact and work to effectively communicate with our colleagues to establish clear and universal guidelines to base our grading practices off of.
Chapter 8, Why Do We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior? Poses two very important questions that need be asked in reference to grading, what is the purpose of the grade? And, what are the components that factor into the grades worth? In regards to the first question posed, to most simply state it: the purpose of grades is to help inform of progress and give feedback to both student and teacher. In all its worth this should be the goal of grades. It is important to also point out the alternative purpose of grades, as awareness alone can negate use. One in which teachers should be especially conscious of is the use of grades as motivation, a common practice in schools these days with a rise in “grade hungry” students. Wormeli sums up the destructive nature of this habit on page 103, stating with its use “we dilute the grades accuracy, we dilute its usefulness, and we use grading to manipulate students.”
The second question centers around the role numerous factors play in computing grades, such as behavior, participation, effort, and attendance. Allowing grades to be summative of the classroom experience can create gray areas, we has teachers need to be conscious of the weight of each component of a student’s grade and be able to accurately express each outside of the narrow confines of a letter. Furthermore teachers need to communicate to their students what their answers to these questions are. Teachers should not stop there though, for them to expect success they must go beyond just explaining the standards, and as well supply the tools to attain them.
“One of the signs of a great intellect is the inclination to extend mercy to others, and all successful teachers are intellectual.” This quote from page 132 does well to sum up the purpose of chapters 9 & 10. It is here Wormeli expresses the important role flexibility and understanding play in the grading process. Chapter 10, Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit, does well to explain the surrounding factors of allowing students to resubmit work, as well as offers tips on ensuring a healthy use of it for both student and teacher. I must say that at the beginning of my education studies I would have sworn to never implement such a practice, seeing it as counterproductive to molding healthy habits. However as my college journey has unfolded I have become more aware and appreciative of professors who take into account individual learning processes. Both of these chapters have really made me question what “type” of teacher I am going to be. While my personal philosophy is far from being cemented these readings have really introduced me to practices I could implement to better reach my goals when I finally do outline them.
Ashley Libby
There are many views when it comes to grading and whether it should be used, what type of grading, when to grade and what the grades mean. How do we come up with a single answer to see types of qualities of grading? Chapter seven through ten of Fair Isn’t always Equal focused on just this. There are so many interpretations of grades and some teachers really want their students to succeed and some teachers seem to just attach a letter grade without thinking if it reflects the student’s mastery. From personal experience, I have received good and bad grades throughout my schooling years. As a student, I want to know what I did wrong or what exactly I did right. The answers to these questions would help me later on to make sure that I either get a better grade next time or ensure that I get another good grade. I would compare my answers with a friend and sometimes we would be unable to see what one person did better than the other. This was because the teacher highlighted certain parts of mine and different parts of theirs and we would not know what was either bad or good about those two parts. We would try to get the teacher to explain but it seemed like they did not take into consideration, how much we knew but how well we answered according to their favorite style or preferred response. That’s not very now is it?
Chapter seven was about the different views on grades and how they are opinionated. Chapter eight talked about the different sides/reasons of grading. It divided the reasons into two categories. One category is to motivate, punish and sort students. The other category is for documenting teacher and student progress, to provide feedback and to inform instructional decisions. Chapter nine was about timing in terms of grading and homework. As teachers we must make sure not to teach through homework because students can actually suffer from it. Chapter ten was about the retaking policy when it comes to tests and homework. I can relate to this chapter because of the many policies that I have seen. I am uncertain as to what my personal retake policy will be but I want to make sure that it is for the student benefit without them taking advantage of it. I have seen situations where students will not try as hard on something but they know they will have an opportunity to retake it when they have more time. That is what I want to avoid in my future classroom.
Table of Contents
Abstract
Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10 in FIAE cover mainly grading in today’s classrooms. We, as teachers must keep in mind that we are doing this in a newly differentiated classroom. As a whole I think the chapters want us as teachers to consider the five W’s. Who are we grading, what are we grading, why are we grading, when do we grade, and where do we grade? As teachers, if we can answer these five things, then we are doing quite well. We can succeed in answering these questions by collaborating with our colleagues. To be effective in our differentiation as teachers it is important to grade all our students fairly, as well as individually. The author highly suggests that as teachers, we are constantly thinking about assessment. As teachers our job is to assess, all the time, and in many different ways. There is a difference between assessment and grading (Assessment vs. Grading)We do this to better prepare our students to show an enduring understanding. Several grading structures are discussed in these chapters; some alike, some unalike but all grading. As teachers we will all have our own ways of grading, and our own policies. One common policy in this chapter was the late work policy. One thing I found effective was that as teachers “we can always do better” As a whole a teachers grading scale should be Fair, Equal, and Informative/consistent.Synthesis
Chapter 7 of FIAE kicked off a discussion on the meaning behind the grade. A lot of block one recognized the impact grades (especially failing grades) have on student performance. In addition, the block focused on the idea that grades should show mastery of a subject and any attempts that do not show master should also not be graded. Ashley Godbout highlights two ways schools have avoided failing students and instead focused on mastery of the subject: “Some school districts follow an A, B, C, I scale where I represents incomplete and there is “failing” grade. Another school includes A, B and “you’re not done”. These are two great examples of fostering that idea that grades show mastery.”For chapter 8 of FIAE, most of block one focused on the positive side of grading. For the most part the block recognized the need for teachers to use grading as a way of giving feedback to the students on the work that they have done. According to block one, students should get more than just a letter grade, the response should include positive things they have done and constructive response on how to do better. Cole summarizes best the dark side to the grading system used in schools today: “And we have a system that, annually, weeds out more students, which fails more students, which discourages more students from learning, than ever before.” As teachers we need to use grading as a tool to keep students in school and motivated rather than a method of getting rid of poor students.
Chapter 9 of FIAE brought out a little disagreement in the classroom. Most of block one agrees that grading homework is not something that should be done. Homework is practice and students should not be subject to summative assessment. Russell puts it best: “Every other assignment (not tests/projects/etc.) is about working with the student to aid their learning, not to judge them on their retention of material.” However, some practicum students voiced concern that if 0s or incompletes are not acceptable, there should be some method for keeping students responsible for completing their homework.
With chapter 10 focusing around redoing or making-up missed or failing assignments, most of block one was in agreement. Students should be given the opportunity to in some method redeem poor classwork. While each member of block one came up with a variation, there was consensus on the core meaning. Tyler Michaud stated a key point concerning the redoing of grades: “Every teacher has a different policy for their classroom and grades and that is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that every teacher needs to make sure that their own practice is clear to the students and themselves; as long as their policy is consistent and fair it should yield positive results.” Whether or not a teacher allows for work to be redone, it is important that the students know ahead of time the policy or method that the teacher will grade.
Cheyenne
Grades, grades, grades, oh, and more GRADES! Who could possibly go on for four entire chapters about grades, not me, because I find them utterly insignificant? They show little to nothing about a student’s true understanding and skill. Firstly I would like to point out the fact that the requirements of what “proving mastery” consists of are different depending on where you are located around the world. I would also like to question the fact that receiving an A would constitute you as “above average.” If you receive a C then you are “just average.” Oh, and don’t let me forget about you bottom-of-the-barrel folks, if you receive a D or even lower, you are what we would all consider “below average,” or in the high school world, DUMB. What wonderful labels we have to put on the youth. You know, at a certain point, after receiving a number of “below average” scores, kids just give up. They wouldn’t give up though, if teachers didn’t give up on them first.We live in a society where receiving the highest grade is all that matters. It doesn’t matter how or why you got that A, but you did, and that makes you King of the Essays, congratulations. So you’re good at writing? How about you tell me how to build a campfire; better yet, build one. I bet you can’t. Luckily for you, you will continue to get you “above average” scores because you insist on taking English courses where you get to write and do the only thing you are truly good at. The kid who is getting D’s, on the other hand, is sitting through torture because he has no idea where to even begin when it comes to defining theme, especially when he is trying to do so while reading Hamlet.
Grades don’t express mastery. They could, but, for the most part, they do not. I think it is safe to say that at least three-fourths of the teachers in the United States think one-sidedly. This means, you must write a paper to express what you have learned, if the writing is crap, then you obviously didn’t learn anything. Wrong! If the writing is crap the student just isn’t a strong writer, and someone didn’t do their job for the entire semester.
As I digress, Wormeli talk about when a grade should be given. Homework is something that should not be graded. I agree, but I also think that nothing should be graded. So I guess I am somewhat biased to this topic. I just see grades as a way to classify and label students. Grades are a means of bullying. A student gets labeled as “unteachable” when the teacher is the one that should have the label. The label of being uninteresting, of being uninspiring, of being unimaginative.
Tyler Michaud
Chapters seven through ten of Fair Isn’t Always Equal, by Rick Wormeli, focused on the importance and significance of grading. Firstly, what do grades mean? The point of them is to assess the students' level of mastery, but what does a “C” mean, versus a “C+”? Yes, a “C” is technically average, so then a “C+” would be slightly above average, but that it is not good enough to be a “B-”, right? Well, now that we have figured that out, what is “average”? Unfortunately, this could go on forever. Grades are extremely subjective, there is no common grading system, which results in grades becoming a way for students to reflect upon their own intelligence, when grades should be viewed as level of understanding achieved so far.What should be graded? Teachers need to know what they are grading and why. For example, is it really necessary to grade an introductory exercise? If so, why? Personally, I think that anything that is not an assessment or an equivalent (projects, etc.) should not be strictly graded, for its purpose was not assessing, but practicing. Grading is not meant to demoralize the students- though it often becomes this- but to check their level of mastery. If needed, the teacher should alter classroom methods to improve upon the results. All students work and achieve at a different pace and nobody should be punished for their methods; however, if the teachers establishes a clear deadline for a lesson, it is up to the student, with the guide of the teacher, to manage time accordingly so that come the due date they are where they should be in terms of the lesson. Do students really deserve redos? Every teacher has their belief on whether students should be allowed to do their work over: some teachers think that do-overs are illogical as it enforces student laziness if they know they can fix it later; however, my personal belief is that redos can be a great tool to improve upon mastery. If a student is willing to put the work into improving their score and can explain why their new submission is improved, than I think it can be useful. Most students, if they know that they will be expected to accomplish additonal work, will not take the redo, thus it stops those students that may think, “I'll just submit this now and then I'll use the “redo” time as an extension, so that I don't have to do it now.” Grading is subjective, but that does not mean it is pointless. When used correctly, grading can help the teacher and students understand what is or is not working. As the teacher, using grades as a way to reflect upon the struggles of the class and of the students and using that awareness to clarify is essential. Every teacher has a different policy for their classroom and grades and that is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that every teacher needs to make sure that their own practice is clear to the students and themselves; as long as their policy is consistent and fair it should yield positive results.
Ashley Godbout
These four chapters were focused on grading and areas where it’s important in the classroom and where it’s not. Grades should define a student’s mastery in the classroom, nothing more or less. A really great lesson this book introduced is lessening the number of grades on the scale. Anything less than C work should be considered temporary. Some school districts follow an A, B, C, I scale where I represents incomplete and there is “failing” grade. Another school includes A, B and “you’re not done”. These are two great examples of fostering that idea that grades show mastery. How can you give credit as a teacher for something that a student has clearly not mastered? It also allows students to keep moving towards mastery and they see themselves as a work in progress rather than focusing on the failure aspect. Grading shouldn’t happen for the sack of motivating students, punishing them, or sorting them. Grading is suppose to give feedback to the students and families, document their progress and aid in making instructional decisions; accurately represent what students know and are able to do. The idea of grading student participation is confusing and something teachers struggle with. It isn’t always easy to determine either because all students are different. Students may be afraid to speak up during class also. With all this said there is certain approaches teachers should avoid when differentiating grading. If the teacher is going to allow the students multiple attempts at something to show mastery then the student shouldn’t be punished for this.The book says to avoid grading homework. I agree with this statement, however, I think students need to receive credit for doing the assignment. Homework shouldn’t receive a grade but it should have feedback so the student can learn and grow for the experience as they work towards mastery. Avoiding group grades is super important. It doesn’t show individual learning and achievement so how can we give everyone in the group the same grade. It’s too inaccurate. Another idea to avoid is recording zeros for work not completed. This gives an inaccurate grade because it skews the grade point average to one that is completely distorted. Instead teachers should mark it as an “I” as mentioned above.
The last introduction we got in these chapters was one that highlighted redoing work for full credit. The first important objective is that redone work is done by teacher discretion. If they feel like a student took 3 days to complete a 4-week project or blew off a test so that they could just preview it then retake it later, the teacher can withdraw the offer to redo it for full credit and have a conversation with the student. The most important note to highlight is that when offering a student to redo their work, the teacher should help them create a calendar to complete the work. This will be like a study plan so they can master the material. Wormelli suggests asking the student “What will you need to do on Thursday so you can turn this is on Friday?” After, ask them, “What will you need to do Wednesday to complete Thursdays application?” Students need this guidance so they can stay up-to-date on their current work while getting their redo work complete.
Christopher Vogel
Over several chapters now the issue of how ineffective (yet required) grades are in the classroom. However, chapter 7 discussed grades in a unique way that I have not thought about before. How does a single grade letter tell a parent, student or teacher how well a student understands a wide variety of topics in one particular class? Often times I have received a paper back from a professor and all the feedback is a simple letter B. I have absolutely no idea what I did wrong. The grade does not describe to me all the flaws of the paper or tell me what I did correctly. Chapter 7 goes on to explain how grades are opinionated. Teachers often grade very differently from each other and can often be influenced by the student writing it. As a teacher we need to understand a student’s background when working on it. The chapter says to adjust grades based on student backgrounds while maintaining the integrity of the grade.
Chapter 8 discusses the reasons for why we grade. The chapter immediately divides grading into two groups. We grade because we want to document student and teacher progress, provide feedback, and inform instructional decisions. The other side of grading is to motivate, punish and sort students. The book favors the first three because it is the positive aspects of grading. As a future teacher I hope to work towards these goals to provide meaning to my grades rather than one more way of manhandling students to do their work.
Chapter 9 discusses the appropriate time to grade students. The critical point made by the chapter is that not all students are ready for grading or assessing what they know at the same time. This makes timing of tests and what we expect on tests critical. One example used in the reading is retaking a test but without the ability to get a 100. This is done so students who did master the material “on time” do not lose out. However, this can be punishing to students who had not been able to master the material at the appointed time despite working hard to do so. Homework is also important. Trying to teach through homework will only hurt students in the long run and may cause them to learn the material incorrectly.
Chapter 10 discussed policies for retaking tests or assignments and how to grade them. I thought this chapter was interesting because of all the good and bad policies mentioned I have had at least once. I particularly like the reason for not averaging retaking of tests with the original test. As a future teacher I do not yet know what I will have for a test retake policy. However, I will always pick the larger of two grades for a student’s test redo. Another policy I will adapt is not allowing redoing of work close to grade closing. The chapter reasons that it is important for teachers to be focused on getting the big grades in and not getting distracted by student requests. I see it as a way to get students prepared for the closing weeks early so they can focus on other issues like the final test or other classes where they are struggling.
Russell Warren
Rick Wormeli has set-up the book in a way that leads up to a huge contention point among many educators across disciplines: grading. He dissected and detailed the ways many teachers attack assessment, and provided options and lessons to allow all students to do well on tests and assignments. However, this is all useless if our grading methods are faulty and illogical. Chapters seven and eight detail the why? and what? of grades and grading students. He begins the section explaining how grades are completely subjective, and I totally agree. Throughout middle and high school I had very different methods between teachers on how they graded my assignments. Some would provide detailed feedback on how I could do better, but others would simply write a grade with no notes or suggestions. I've also experienced, almost exclusively in college, teachers who are very rewarding and kind during class and on formative assessments, but get hardcore when it comes to summative assessments, and I'm left shocked and confused. Grades are necessary in the classroom, but they shouldn't be used as an end-all, be-all. They are weighted symbols than can positively or negatively effect the students' opinion on the class and teacher. It's so important to provide explanation for your grading and give the opportunity for student to meet with you to discuss their success in the class. For all you know, they 'D' student - whatever that means - could be extremely proud and confident in their work. Grades are to scale and follow progress and assess students. For them to be effective, teachers must use written or oral response to communicate with the student.
Chapters nine and ten have Wormeli discussing the actual exercise of taking tests. Obviously, it's never always alright to assign a test, and it's especially not right to grade everything given to the students. I agree with Wormeli that graded assignments should be saved for the big, end-of-unit, formative assessments, like the performance task objective - this is what Wormeli urges for in Chapter ten. Every other assignment is about working with the student to aid their learning, not to judge them on their retention of material. I think it's really important that the students understand that the point of them being in the class is to learn and grow, not to do well on a test every week. Too many students fall into a rut of repetition and quick retention that gets them through school, but with little concrete knowledge. The other side of this, however, is the problem with how grade-oriented the current educational climate is. How can we pass students if we don't have grades? Is it enough to pass them for just finishing the work? I think the answer for these both is a big no. A system is what needs to be created, one where timeliness and correctness is graded alongside creativity and comprehension. I need to know they're being assessed thoroughly, but they should know that their knowledge is key.
Michael Diffin
Chapter seven in fair isn't always equal talks primarily about the arbitrary grading system that exists in schools today. What separates an A from a B or and A from D for that matter. It is all relative to the teacher but we are expected to assign the students a letter or number based on how well they answered the questions on each form of assessment. But are we assessing them, or them against all the other students? I think that assigning them one of these relative grades that have been assigned to the grading system is foul and unnecessary in order to prove the fact that they are learning. We need to be assessing the fact that they are improving their own knowledge, prove that each student is genuinely learning.Chapter eight in fair isn't always equal teaches us the reason that we grade and the importance of including effort, attendance, and behavior in the thought process of grading. There are several things that can be used positively in the grading process. These consist of, “to document student and teacher progress, to provide feedback to the student and family, and the teacher, to inform instructional decisions.” These are some positive reasons to grade, the chapter also includes negative reasons to grade, “to motivate students, to punish students, to sort students.” The chapter goes into grading effort and behavior. It outlines how to we objectively measure effort? It is hard to do so because there is no standard for it.
Chapter nine outlines ten processes to avoid when grading because they exclude students that shouldn’t be excluded. These appear as very important processes to avoid when grading as they often appear arbitrary with lack of substance. Some of the ones covered in the last chapter include non-academic parts of the students education. You should also avoid penalizing the students for wanting to retry their work, allow them to redo it but allow it for full credit. Homework should also not be graded because it is just an attempt at the work and therefore only practice. I also like avoiding group grades as they do not accurately reflect all members, some students always end up doing more than others or that the ideas of the students may be different, reflecting different learning results. Finally I like the idea of not recording zeros for work that has not been done because when they see this they respond negatively and end up doing even less.
Chapter ten in fair isn't always equal outlines redoing work for full credit. This chapter has some great main points for redoing work. The first is doing the work at the teachers discretion, redoing work should not be done just to get a better grade, it is for the better understanding of the student. I will decide when and what they have to do to get full credit. This ties into one of the other ones that states that we should reserve the right to change the format of the work so that the whole thing is not redone arbitrarily. They should have to do the work that will best help them understand the work to the level that they need to.
Matt Potter
Chapter seven of FIAE focuses on grading, and its affect on student’s performance. Teachers must grade work and return in in a timely fashion. This chapter breaks this down even further. How do we grade work, and what is a grade? This chapter describes grading as the marking of a students performance. Another thing I found interesting in which I interpreted from this chapter was that, it is important to differentiate in the ways we grade. Students who are expected to preform lowly, but are putting forth great effort deserve credit right? This chapter says that a student in this situation should in fact not receive a low grade, and I agree. Grades are a great way to kill a student’s ego. So why give a student that is working his tail off a failing grade? They simply should receive a passing grade based on his/her attempt. I as a teacher will put this observation into great use. I want to be a successful teacher, and I will never wish failure on any of my students.Chapter eight, talks about grading positively. This pertains to student’s effort, and even behavior. The book suggests that we as teacher take the time to documents, thank, and congratulate our students for being in class, on time, prepared, and attempting all the assignments they are given. In my mind these things should matter based on success, and grade. Though we don’t link those words together. It about the effort a student puts in, and how he or she behaves in class.
Chapter nine speaks of multiple more things not to do as a teacher, while grading. To sum these multiple strategies up, we as teachers should never disadvantage our students in any way. The book gives a few great examples of this, they include, not giving extra credit, not putting in zeros into our grade book for late work, and to never grade homework for use of a formative assessment. As a teacher I will avoid these things. Zeros, to me, are a “cop out” as a teacher, the easy way out. I feel as if zeros, and graded formative assessments are great ways to disadvantage students, which is exactly why I will never use these teaching styles. I will continuously move forward in my teaching styles and only practice beneficial methods that will affect my students.
Chapter ten discusses late work. It talks about how we can work with student and give them the opportunity to complete late work without receiving a zero. Teachers put both themselves and their students down when they give a student a zero for a late assignment. We must give guidelines for our students, but be flexible all at the same time. Students who don’t turn in an assignment when it is due should be talked to one on one before, maybe during, or after class to discuss when the assignment will be completed. By taking this approach we make our students feel accountable for their work. More often than not, they will not want to disappoint you again in the future!
All these chapters discuss forms of assessment and grading. Also technique, and method pertain to this. They all connect when looking at students needs, and attempting to help them succeed in the classroom. Our goal is to help them do better, and not push them away.
Meghan Hughes
These four chapters focus on grading and the effects it has on students, teachers, and the classroom overall. Chapter seven focuses on the effects of grading on student performance. One thing I liked about this chapter is the fact that it discussed the importance of differentiating grading between students. It is important to give credit where credit is due. Just because a student hasn't gained the highest level of mastery, but they do the work hard and try to the best of their ability, should they not receive credit for that work? Of course they should. Although it is not always practical, students should receive credit for their work when it is evident that they have done the work and have tried to the best of their ability. There are many relevant issues when dealing with grading based on credit. We do not want to discourage a student who tries really hard but hasn't received mastery, and we don't want to encourage a poor work ethic even if the student has a natural mastery of the subject.Chapter eight focused on positive grading. It is important to take into account all aspects that may go into how students complete their work. It is important to take into account work ethic, behavior, and the importance of teacher feedback. It is important to find a steady balance between grading based on a student's efforts and grading based on a student's mastery. It is important to find a balance because we do not want students to think they do not have to gain mastery of the subject as long as it appears they have done the work and put in the effort on paper. The book gave several examples of ways to not disadvantage students; not giving extra credit, not putting zeros in the grade book for late work, and not using homework as a summative assessment for the class.
Chapter nine focused on things to avoid when grading student work. It is important that we NEVER disadvantage students in any way. We should not make the process more complicated for them than it has to be to prove that they either have full mastery, or that they are able to put in their best effort to come up with an answer.
Chapter ten also discussed late work. One thing I do not agree with as an example of this, is giving zeros for late or missing work. It is important for students to be held accountable for their assigned work. On the other hand, it is important to allow students the proper amount of time needed to complete an assignment so they are not being disadvantaged by the teacher. In my mentor classroom at the high school, I have seen a prime example of how late or missing work can greatly influence an entire classroom. Because there is no late work policy in place, students are able to pass in their assignments whenever they feel like it without being penalized. In short, almost every student comes into class every day without having any homework done. This means that nothing gets accomplished in class, which is not helpful to anyone. While I understand it is important to take into account the other issues that students might be dealing with, it is also important to teach students responsibility and accountability in the classroom in every aspect. There are many ways to avoid this issue. Making sure the student know to talk to you ahead of time as opposed to not mentioning a reason whey their work is late, will still hold the student accountable, and will give the teacher more control to talk with the student and create a new date and time for the assignment. It is important that all students learn in the classroom, and in order for them to do this, it is important that the teacher be consistent and always hold the students accountable for their work in and out of the classroom.
Cole Phillips
Throughout chapters seven, eight, nine, and ten of Rick Wormeli’s Fair Isn’t Always Equal, we find Wormeli extensively detailing the grading process. He notes its subjectivity, its differences from district to district, offers examples of what grading is, and what grading should be. Wormeli suggests there are districts where anything below a C is either failing or incomplete, and must be redone. He suggests there are districts which do not even use Cs. Wormeli even posits that there are districts which use alternative grading scales which have abandoned numerical grading altogether.
Wormeli details mastery, time and time again, asserting that grades, in any form, should be an ultimate representation of such things. But are contemporary grades or grading systems representative of this idealistic indicator? We have a system which is logically based, we have a system that has proven timeless, and a system which encourages work-well-done and discourages the contrary. And we have a system that, annually, weeds out more students, which fails more students, which discourages more students from learning, than ever before. If ever there has been something in an educational system which needs careful attention, then it is the scale with which we assess student comprehension. This is the base on which grade level ascension functions, on which preparedness for life after school functions, and on which student self-discovery is enabled. In short, grades suck, and the grading system sucks.
You can differentiate grades with pluses and minuses, detailed explanations, or whatever seems appropriate, but a student on the honor roll wears ribbons on graduation day, and a student who's seen nothing but Fs is pulling a shift at Cumberland Farms that day. Failure, in itself, is a distorted, contrived label that needs to be ousted altogether. But so, then, do numerical and alphabetical grades, in my opinion. A grade is for an egg; a level of understanding is for a student. We must go into this field thinking we want to be teachers in large part because we know that there is, at least, something that we want to change. We must fuel the desire to go into this field with thirst for enabling student success and with never, ever, wanting to let students to fall by the wayside because of neglect and inadvertent discouragement. We can't let a student fail because he or she wasn’t given the time of day, and the National Honor Society held meetings in his or her homeroom every week.
If students are taking the time to be in class, then take the time to give them a detailed, written explanation of what their perceived comprehensions of the content are. Grades should be pass/fail, period. Though, perhaps, alternately titled. Grades exist for the sake of college admission and future workforce applications. Both of these should be merit based, not numerically based. Higher education, lower education, the workforce – doesn’t matter. We are all working with people, not robots, not numbers. Write a college an essay with eloquent conviction, and you should be in. Get a job interview and blow them away before they’ve had the chance to glance at GPA, and you should be in. Sit down with a student and tell them where they’re going in the right direction, or why it seems to be the contrary, and you enable them to feel like they can do anything.
Tyler Brown
Wormeli covers many of the common errors teachers tend to make regarding assessment in Chapters 7-10 of FIAE. First, he discusses the nature of grading and both sides of the argument about whether or not grading is really an effective and healthy way of reinforcing and interpreting students’ mastery. Personally, I support a system free of arbitrary letters and numbers that don’t really detail individual growth and achievement. On the other hand, I can instantly recognize what an uproar an announcement like that would make when told to a group of students, teachers, and administrators who have been socialized by the grading system, in most cases, for the majority of their lives. In my Practicum experience, I have noticed that when leading in-class activities, the question of “are we being graded on this?” is asked all too often.
There seems to be no safe response. I tried explaining to one class that it is not being graded, but participation will help them learn the material that they will eventually be tested on. One student, who I will call J, openly responded with “sweet well I’ll just wait for the study guide Mr. Main gives us before the test because I really don’t feel like doing anything today”. Looking around the room, a few smirks, stifled laughs, and nods of the head allowed me to understand that some of the students agreed with this notion. So given that information I posed the question “so what you are saying J, is that grading you on this activity somehow is the only thing that would get you to participate?” to which he replied with something along the lines of: “yeah, because we are here to take classes, earn grades, and get the hell out of here as fast as possible. That’s it”. I wasn’t really sure how to respond, so I said, “Okay J, I’ll let you watch the rest of us do the activity, and if you decide by the end of the class that it’s boring just sitting at your desk watching, let me know and we will work you into the activity.” 20 minutes later, the class had been separated into two teams and we were in the midst of playing “trashketball” while covering the content in Unit 17.1. After all of the students had a chance to take a shot, I stopped and said “Blue team, you are short one player on your roster, is it alright if J joins your team?” They agreed that would be okay, and without having to put J on the spot, he was socially reinforced to take a shot, which he made, and answer a 3-point question, which he knew the answer to. I was thankful that it ended that way, because a variety of other endings to that story could have occurred. J could have been more defiant and still refused to participate. He might have gotten angry that I didn’t ask him directly whether or not he wanted to join in. Another student in the class could have chided him by saying "I thought you were too cool to participate", or any number of alternate negative endings could have escalated the issue, all because I said "no, this will not be graded".
To me, grading and assessment is perhaps the most mind-boggling aspect of education. The only real universal truth about grading seems to be that: what to grade, when to grade, and how to grade, along with the hundreds of unique considerations that branch off of those questions, must all be decided with respect to the content, the unique personality of the class, and the unique personality of each individual student within it.
Devin Boilard
FIAE Chapters: 7,8,9, &10I have been waiting for the topic of grades to arise for a while now, as author Rick Wormeli points out in Fair Isn’t Always Equal, it is the “elephant in the room,” and today I finally get the chance to talk about it. The definition of a grade is almost completely indefinable, Chapter 7: The Relative Nature of Grades and Their Definitions itself never reaching its own conclusion. Both how the grade is reached and what it exemplifies changes from moment to moment. A teacher’s assessment of class papers can produce a range of samples carrying the marking of “A”, contributing to this are factors such as a student’s background, location of paper in the stack, and teacher’s mood. Overall definitions of grades range too, a specific area of frustration I find within the education community is the disparity in what grade marks complete mastery. While for most teachers an “A” represents meeting outlined goals, for others it is reserved for those who excel. This practice runs into the flaw that students who do reach the level of full mastery can be marked with a “B”; much is lost in translation. As teachers we must accept the fact that grades by nature are subjective and therefore will never be completely accurate in their assessment. Unless we have the opportunity to work at such institutions that have done away with grades, we must be conscious of this fact and work to effectively communicate with our colleagues to establish clear and universal guidelines to base our grading practices off of.
Chapter 8, Why Do We Grade, and What About Effort, Attendance, and Behavior? Poses two very important questions that need be asked in reference to grading, what is the purpose of the grade? And, what are the components that factor into the grades worth? In regards to the first question posed, to most simply state it: the purpose of grades is to help inform of progress and give feedback to both student and teacher. In all its worth this should be the goal of grades. It is important to also point out the alternative purpose of grades, as awareness alone can negate use. One in which teachers should be especially conscious of is the use of grades as motivation, a common practice in schools these days with a rise in “grade hungry” students. Wormeli sums up the destructive nature of this habit on page 103, stating with its use “we dilute the grades accuracy, we dilute its usefulness, and we use grading to manipulate students.”
The second question centers around the role numerous factors play in computing grades, such as behavior, participation, effort, and attendance. Allowing grades to be summative of the classroom experience can create gray areas, we has teachers need to be conscious of the weight of each component of a student’s grade and be able to accurately express each outside of the narrow confines of a letter. Furthermore teachers need to communicate to their students what their answers to these questions are. Teachers should not stop there though, for them to expect success they must go beyond just explaining the standards, and as well supply the tools to attain them.
“One of the signs of a great intellect is the inclination to extend mercy to others, and all successful teachers are intellectual.” This quote from page 132 does well to sum up the purpose of chapters 9 & 10. It is here Wormeli expresses the important role flexibility and understanding play in the grading process. Chapter 10, Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit, does well to explain the surrounding factors of allowing students to resubmit work, as well as offers tips on ensuring a healthy use of it for both student and teacher. I must say that at the beginning of my education studies I would have sworn to never implement such a practice, seeing it as counterproductive to molding healthy habits. However as my college journey has unfolded I have become more aware and appreciative of professors who take into account individual learning processes. Both of these chapters have really made me question what “type” of teacher I am going to be. While my personal philosophy is far from being cemented these readings have really introduced me to practices I could implement to better reach my goals when I finally do outline them.
Ashley Libby
There are many views when it comes to grading and whether it should be used, what type of grading, when to grade and what the grades mean. How do we come up with a single answer to see types of qualities of grading? Chapter seven through ten of Fair Isn’t always Equal focused on just this. There are so many interpretations of grades and some teachers really want their students to succeed and some teachers seem to just attach a letter grade without thinking if it reflects the student’s mastery. From personal experience, I have received good and bad grades throughout my schooling years. As a student, I want to know what I did wrong or what exactly I did right. The answers to these questions would help me later on to make sure that I either get a better grade next time or ensure that I get another good grade. I would compare my answers with a friend and sometimes we would be unable to see what one person did better than the other. This was because the teacher highlighted certain parts of mine and different parts of theirs and we would not know what was either bad or good about those two parts. We would try to get the teacher to explain but it seemed like they did not take into consideration, how much we knew but how well we answered according to their favorite style or preferred response. That’s not very now is it?Chapter seven was about the different views on grades and how they are opinionated. Chapter eight talked about the different sides/reasons of grading. It divided the reasons into two categories. One category is to motivate, punish and sort students. The other category is for documenting teacher and student progress, to provide feedback and to inform instructional decisions. Chapter nine was about timing in terms of grading and homework. As teachers we must make sure not to teach through homework because students can actually suffer from it. Chapter ten was about the retaking policy when it comes to tests and homework. I can relate to this chapter because of the many policies that I have seen. I am uncertain as to what my personal retake policy will be but I want to make sure that it is for the student benefit without them taking advantage of it. I have seen situations where students will not try as hard on something but they know they will have an opportunity to retake it when they have more time. That is what I want to avoid in my future classroom.